Warren teen sentenced for sex assault against child

Rockland — A 19-year-old Warren man was sentenced to serve nine months in jail July 30 for sexually assaulting a 5-year-old child.

Nicholas Guernsey was arrested in February and charged with one count of Class A unlawful sexual touching. Guernsey was sentenced by Justice Joyce Wheeler to seven years in prison with all but nine months suspended. The term of imprisonment will be at the Knox County Jail.

Guernsey will be subject to terms of probation for 12 years effective immediately. He will not be allowed contact with children younger than age 16 unless they are family members. Once he completes counseling, he may be allowed supervised contact with children if the court deems it appropriate.

Wheeler said the sentence is appropriate considering Guernsey has no prior criminal history, has mental limitations, and that coming to an agreement and avoiding a trial was important to spare the victim from testifying.

Guernsey will receive sex offender counseling while in custody and will be allowed to postpone his jail term until November as he is working on a farm and is needed to work during the harvest season.

On Feb. 2, the victim's mother called police to report her child was molested by the babysitter. She identified the babysitter as Guernsey and said she was taking the child to the hospital.

Knox County Sheriff's Office Detective Justin Twitchell met with the family at the hospital to discuss what happened. After allowing Guernsey to babysit their child, the parents returned home and saw the child had taken a bath. The child told the mother the incident happened after a bath.

Twitchell spoke to the young victim, who told him what happened in the bathroom of the home. The detective then interviewed Guernsey, who denied touching the child inappropriately, and said if he did, it was an accident, and it happened when he was drying the child off after the bath.